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Gruesome Covington Murder Detailed in Magazine

Writer Amy Brownlee has penned for Cincinnati Magazine a gripping, horrifying account of the 2009 murder of Travis White in Covington which led to the conviction of multiple individuals, including a then-14 year old girl who will soon face re-sentencing as an adult. The intensely-researched piece goes into frighteng detail about what happened on that February day three years ago:

Jim Lane, an employee at Jess & Sons Towing, ventured out toward the neighboring train tracks to a barren industrial back lot. He saw a large, red carpet rolled up on the ground with hair sticking out from one end. Thinking it might be one of Covington’s many homeless men wrapped up against the cold, Lane pulled back the carpet to wake the person. Instead he found the devastated body of Travis White.

(snip)

When police entered the apartment later that day—more than a week after the killing—blood still splattered the walls and ceiling, was still ground into the painted wood floor. There were still bloody footprints leading out of the front room and a pool of blood in the basement. A blood-soaked T-shirt fitting the description of the one White had last been seen wearing was also recovered; it was pitted with inch-wide slashes.

The home told two appalling stories: a single, ruthless attack mapped onto a scene of cumulative poverty, neglect, and despair. Roaches crowded around half-eaten food on the floor. Garbage and dirty clothes blocked the hallways. The doors had been all but dismantled; many had no knobs, and one looked as if it had once been ripped open, its raw wood splintering from the handle. Ball’s room—where Travis was killed—had virtually no furniture except for a grimy uncovered mattress laid chaotically on the floor, piled with clothes and schoolbooks. Nearby was a desk overflowing with her belongings: two or three cheap cell phones, nubs of crayons, dirty cotton swabs, three kinds of deodorant, tangles of jewelry, a photo of an infant. Sheets hung over the windows. A large, cloudy mirror sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, a stuffed animal sticking out from behind its frame. Graffiti was scrawled on the walls and doors as if they were bathroom stalls. Emily and her family had been living in the apartment for approximately one month.